July 2010 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

A new survey of hospital CFOs by Merritt Hawkins, a physician search firm, shows that hospitals typically earn 5 to 10 times more in revenue from employed physicians than what they pay them in salaries. Click to continue »

Here are statistics on the average and median base salary compensation for hospital and health system CEOs and CFOs, according to Integrated Healthcare Strategies' Executive Compensation Survey. Click to continue »

Here are the average daily on-call compensation rates for physicians by medical specialty, according to MGMA's Medical Directorship and On-Call Compensation Survey 2010 Report, Based on 2009 Data. Click to continue »

Here are the average annual salaries for gastroenterologists by region, according to the American Medical Group Association's 2009 AMGA Medical Group Compensation and Financial Survey. Click to continue »

Here are statistics on the number of independent community hospitals compared to community hospitals that are part of a larger hospital system from 1999-2008, according to the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals. Click to continue »

Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 first outlined the incentives providers would be able to receive for "meaningful use" of certified electronic health record technology, hospitals, physicians and other healthcare organizations have been gearing up and trying to figure out what the law will mean for them. Click to continue »

The American Hospital Association has released the first in a series of AHA Research Synthesis Reports, which discusses the potential implications of bundled payments and addresses key areas for consideration moving forward. Click to continue »

University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of 107 academic medical centers and their affiliated hospitals, has announced it is launching an initiative to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infections, according to a UHC press release. Click to continue »

The Health Services Coalition, a group of 24 self-funded insurance plans, has told a group of 13 Las Vegas area hospitals that if they do not improve the quality of care they provide, that they might send patients out of state, according to a report by the Las Vegas Sun. Click to continue »

More than one-third of hospitalized Californians were readmitted to the hospital within a year, and Medicare and Medicaid patients had higher readmission rates than private-pay patients, according to a report by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Click to continue »

Errors by hospital coders affect accurate nonpayment by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for catheter-associated hospital acquired infections, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan. Click to continue »

Even though health reform will allow 32 million previously uninsured Americans to get regular care from physicians, many of these patients are expected to continue crowding into emergency departments. Click to continue »

It is a common assumption that healthcare reform, by providing insurance to millions of previously uninsured individuals, will reduce volumes in the emergency departments of the nation’s hospitals. Click to continue »

In 2009, as many physicians criticized the AMA for its continuing support of the Democrats' health reform bill, membership dropped by 3.5 percent, according to reports on the AMA website. Click to continue »

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as the health reform law, contains more than a thousand pages of often fairly obscure provisions, but Section 3022 has particular significance for hospitals and physicians in the future, says Brian Silverstein, MD, senior vice president at The Camden Group. Click to continue »

Arizona has become the 19th state to reject a federal invitation to set up a high-risk pool to cover patients with pre-existing medical conditions under health reform, according to a report by the Arizona Republic. Click to continue »

A federal lawsuit is being filed against the health reform law's ban on new physician-owned hospitals and expansions of existing facilities, according to a release by Physician Hospitals of America, a co-plaintiff. Click to continue »

When Oak Brook, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care launched its Clinical Integration Program a little more than five years ago, very few organizations were aligning with independent physicians in ways that today would be viewed as the underpinnings of an accountable care organization. Click to continue »

HCAHPS, or the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, is a standardized survey tool used to measure adult inpatient perception of the quality of care they receive at a given hospital. Click to continue »

The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and The Christ Hospital in Mount Auburn, Ohio, have agreed to pay $108 million to settle claims they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Click to continue »

Nine hospitals in seven states have agreed to pay the United States more than $9.4 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare related to kyphoplasty procedures performed between 2000 and 2008, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Click to continue »

Orthopedics can be a profitable service line for your hospital due to good reimbursement and increased demand for orthopedic surgeries. With a few adjustments, hospitals can move their orthopedics lines from good to exceptional. Click to continue »

The highest scorer in the nation in CMS' Core Measures process-of-care program in 2009 was 235-bed Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Ala., an affiliate of Community Health Systems, which operates 122 hospitals in 29 states. Click to continue »